Lily’s On Main

My husband and I have been to Lily’s quite a few times over the years, and we have always had an excellent meal.
We started the evening at the movie theater next door (owned by Lily’s), and enjoyed a cocktail while we watched the new Star Wars movie. Beautiful theater, which the owner of Lily’s completely redid in the old art decco style (same as the restaurant). A very nice perk is that on certain nights they will take 10% off your dinner if you bring your movie ticket stubs from the theater. Kudos to the Star Wars inspired cocktails. Hubby enjoyed his frozen Millennium Falcon.
Service this evening was excellent. From the reservationist, to the hostess, and our server, all were professional and courteous. Lily’s drinks are always well made, so cocktails were ordered and, as expected, delicious. We were disappointed that their grilled Romaine wasn’t on the menu (one of our favorites). Instead, my husband ordered duck tenders, which were outstanding (juicy, flavorful breading on the outside, terrific Asian barbecue sauce), and I ordered the scallop chowder. When I order a cream soup, I’m always hesitant. The one thing I cannot stand is if the soup is more like a pudding. (Sigh)…this was like pudding, and lukewarm. Also, not very flavorful. I was surprised it was that sad because it was one of the specials for the evening. Our salads, on the other hand, were fresh, crisp, very tasty. For our entrees, I ordered the raspberry chicken with melted brie (!) and chambord sauce, which was simply incredible. Hubby ordered prime rib and, well, it’s hard to go wrong with prime rib.
Dessert…I’m always appreciative of chefs who take something traditional and add a little twist to it. «Regular» crème brûlée was recreated as rice pudding brulee. I’m a fan of both, but this time it was just okay. Totally consumed it, though. Bananas Foster was refashioned as cheesecake wrapped in a tortilla and fried, then dressed with that crazy caramel sauce. My husband was quite impressed. Thankfully, we have a rule of always sharing our dessert. It’s a good rule.
Note: It isn’t marked on the menu, but salad apparently is included with the meal. I wish I had known this as when I order an appetizer, I don’t want salad; makes me too full. Also, they always provide a bread basket. Homemade, warm. I’m okay if they keep doing that.

If we had appetizers it would have been fine. We had a 4 course New Year’s Eve dinner. Mediocre service and food. Very disappointed overall and overpriced for the quality we experienced. We will not return.

Been here several times with my husband and had the opportunity to try a few different selections. The atmosphere is really nice and has a relaxed feel to it. The food is pricey but most of it is worth what you pay. My very favorite dish that I’ve ordered several times is their raspberry chicken. Its flavorful and the raspberry chambord sauce compliments it nicely. I also really like their calamari. The batter its fried in is delicious and the dipping sauce goes really well with it. I’ve tried some of their lunch options and haven’t been overly impressed. Their chicken salad wrap is just ok. The chicken salad is good but the wrap is overly stuffed with lettuce and they really skimp on the chicken salad they put in it. The cobb salad wasn’t very impressive either. They do have a really good looking dessert tray and everything I’ve tried from it has been really good.
Honestly, my main complaint about the place is its service. The servers are friendly but I’ve been here maybe 6 or so times and each time it was painfully slow. I understand some upper scale restaurants like to do a more relaxed service but when I come in for lunch and the place is pretty slow, I expect my experience to not take an entire hour. And 1.5 hours for dinner when they are slow is also ridiculous. I’ve often chosen to go elsewhere even though this place is local to me simply because I don’t feel like putting up with a dinner that takes over an hour from start to finish.

Always a pleasurable experience here! Had the Lily burger!!! Made perfectly just how I ordered it! Chocolate Martini always a delight! Perfect place for gathering with friends, celebrating a special event or just because! The servers always make your visit personable!!!

9÷9÷15 Had not been to the restaurant for a very long time. Arrived around 5:15 no one else there, but we were early. Our waitress at first seemed annoyed, but did warm up later on.
My husband ordered the crab cakes I ordered the raspberry chicken. The salad was sparse, a couple of sliced radishes and the slivered carrots had a dried up look to them. The bread seemed dry and sandy, but my husband said was it was the type of bread. Disappointing, who does not look forward to great bread. My husband really enjoyed his crab cakes, however the raspberry chicken had an odd taste, could not pinpoint it. Could not finish the chicken. The mashed potatoes were good.
Decided to share a slice of citrus cake, the cake was extremely dry, the saving grace was the buttercream icing.
My husband ordered a 10 ounce glass of wine. The wine was wonderful, but he questioned whether it was actually 10 ounces. The waitress assured him it was. He is still not sure.
Our bill was $ 72., we left feeling we could have spent that money elsewhere and had a wonderful dining experience.
We left the restaurant around 6:20, still no other patrons, but, there was a
lady waiting to be seated.
We do not feel a need to return.

Yes. I actually feel this can not be any better. the food is amazing. The owner makes sure it stays that way and is personally invested. The view and location is very nice and the theater is downstairs and makes a romantic date.
I have love this consistently wonderful place for years and years after my daughter worked there as a teen and for many years to come!
I will tell anyone, this is a place you will never be disappointed!

We ate here at 4:30 on a Sunday. The place was empty when we went in. We had Caesar salads. They were a piece of romaine with 2 anchovies, 3 olives, & some creamy dressing. Mine even had brown spots on the romaine. These accompanied the entrée. I had the seafood stew and my husband had the salmon. They were fresh but uninspired. Bland. The only good thing was the bruschetta which came with the appetizers. At $ 80 I can go elsewhere for brown lettuce and uninspired cooking.

Very attentative service. Service not rushed, at our pace. Food very well prepared and very flavorable. Several unique items we just had to try.

DO NOT COME… THE SERVICE IS HORRIBLE! GOT HERE AT 7pm did not order until 7:30 (we had to ask to order) it is now 9:00pm and still have not gotten my food. The food is good but honestly it is not worth the 1.5 hour+ wait. DO NOT COME! I REPEAT, DO NOT COME!!! Sidenote: there was no one else in the restaurant.

We came expecting exceptional food because of reviews and we were greatly disappointed. They were out of 4 things that we wanted to order and seemed to be off when wanting suggestions. Way overpriced for the quality of food and quantity! Would never recommend or go back again

We looked on the website the day before Easter. We found an «Early Spring Menu» and a Buffet Menu for Mother’s Day as well as a Dinner Menu for Mother’s Day. There was no menu for Easter. So we assumed the Early Spring Menu would be used. There was one dish I wanted and we drove 40 minutes out of our way to go there for that dish. When we arrived – they were using an EASTER menu and lo and behold the item I wanted was not on the EASTER menu. I asked why the menu hadn’t been posted on the website and the waitress said they weren’t responsible for the website-​really? Who is then? Why on earth would a Mother’s Day Menu be posted (over one month early) when there was no Easter menu posted the day before? I think I know why… continue…
The Easter menu had a lamb dish called «roast of lamb» (not sure what that even is) vs the «lamb tenderloin chops» on the Early Spring Menu. The waitress went to check if they could serve me the Early Spring Menu lamb since they had the item the day before and would have it the day after – she returned with a yes. Thank you. I ordered the lamb Medium – they were purple inside. The «spicy» sausage with the lamb was not spicy at all nor was it heated – it was room temperature at best as was the couscous. I felt like the only thing that was cooked was the lamb and it was done far too briefly. However, I did not bother to return it. If they felt it appropriate to serve unheated/​uncooked food – well, I just didn’t trust them to fix it. I paid $ 25 for this uncooked meal.
We had read lots of complaints about service issues at the restaurant. When we saw the REQUIRED 20% gratuity we thought, wow, that’s how they deal with the bad service issues? Now they force the customers to pay for service regardless of whether or not it’s good? AND, they didn’t put this menu up on the website. Had I seen the required gratuity on top of knowing there were service issues – we would never have gone.
Oops. I think I answered my own question about why the menu wasn’t posted on the website!

Easter buffet left much to be desired.
Mediocre food replaced irregularly and left luke warm.
Slow, unintelligible staff.
And a completely undeserved 20% gratuity included in the bill!
Unfortunately, even the view from the dining room won’t redeem the completely lackluster Lilly’s on Main

Wow… just wow. Previous experiences here have always been wonderful but the Easter Sunday buffet just missed on every level. Some of the offered items we were never able to sample because the pans were empty the entire time we were there, and what was there was dried out and cold. $ 35.00 per person plus a 20% gratuity and we bussed our own dirty dishes and refilled our own glasses. If you aren’t prepared to serve buffet style, just don’t do it. We will think strongly about returning to Lily’s on Main in the future as this experience left such a bad taste in our mouths. Doesn’t even deserve the 1 star I am forced to give. Shameful. Utterly shameful.

Pricey, but the food was amazing! Worth the cost! However, the service was sllooowwwww, waited almost 20 minutes just for drinks. If the service was a bit more on their toes, I would have given them more stars.

Like others have mentioned, we too have eaten here previously and had relatively good experiences. However today’s brunch experience will most likely be the reason we choose not to return. We were the second of 3 couples to arrive. After actively tracking down a waiter so that we could order some coffee, etc. what seemed like an excessive time elapsed before we then inquired why the drinks hadn’t arrived. The response was the computer was down. Seriously– no way to make a note that we ordered a couple items and then put them on the tab later when the system was up and running? I suppose if the computer failed to respond we would have been unable to eat?
One member of our group ordered the stuffed French Toast and was given honey as a topping. When he realized it wasn’t syrup and asked for some, he was advised there was none available. Later we overheard another patron order the same thing but this time the server advised in a voice a bit louder (and possibly sarcastically) you’ll have to do without syrup.
I ordered the Farmer’s Skillet and asked for the eggs over-​medium on top of the skillet mix. Apparently this came across as an unusual request, but they did at least put the eggs on top– but the eggs were over-​hard and therefore no nice warm egg yolk to mix into the contents of the skillet. Perhaps they’ve never eaten breakfast with real farmers.
Mrs. Foodie’s breakfast was served cold and the accompanying fried potatoes looked closer to black than a nice golden-​brown.
Throughout the meal subsequent attempts at drink refills were too slow and infrequent.
To top it off, the bill had a 20% tip already figured into the total. I love to give a tip of that size (and quite frequently a bit higher) when service warrants it. I’m sorry folks– that wasn’t the case today.

We went to Lilly’s on Main while in town visiting family and it was fabulous !!! Lauren, our server, was AMAZING! She took the whole fine-​dining experience to a whole new level. This is a first class restaurant right next door to a restored vintage movie theater (that offers beer and wine also) and it was a real treat! Taylor, the chef in charge that day, came and introduced himself after our meal due to our request because the ‘smoked ham Madame’ and ‘crabbed stuffed soft pretzel’ were both delicious and the presentation was impeccable also.
Our waitress, Lauren, makes the best ‘Old Fashioned’ ever and we told her she should coin the drink Lauren’s Old Fashioned. So if you have one there know it is she who invented it.
The entire staff is awesome and completely welcoming. Come here if you want to feel at home in Ephrata!

We stopped by Lily’s on Main after a day of antiquing in Adamstown. It is located on the second floor of a modern building not too far from Adamstown and Lititz, PA. This was a Thursday night and it was empty except for two other tables. We waited a few minutes to be seated and then were given a seat near the window. The décor is very Art Deco with beautiful lights on each table.
We asked our waitress about a local wine listed on the menu and she was kind. enough to allow us to sample it. It was a little too sweet for our dinner selections so we ordered a more known wine.
I had ordered the trout which was filleted and served on a bed of roasted root vegetables. The trout was dry and many of the bite-​sized root vegetables were burned. My friend had ordered the pumpkin raviolis. She enjoyed her meal.
The restaurant has such potential since it is in a nicely decorated building and probably one of the most elegant places in the area, but the quality of the meal was lacking.

Service terribly slow. Food terribly average. Portions less than desirable. Staff did not pro actively apologize for service. Severely disappointed.

Was the worst meal I ever had! Ordered a crab pretzel and was a frozen pretzel I could buy at the store. The meals we ordered were disgusting. Spaghetti and meatball: meatball was raw! The Cobb salad the chicken tasted horrible and the avocado was rotten. And the filet for $ 33 the mashed potatoes tasted like Idaho mashed potatoes from a box. The worst $ 133.00 I ever spent I will will never go back.

I was a bit put off initially when we had to wait several minutes for the hostess to quit chatting with the kitchen staff and notice we were standing there. However, even if the hostess was ineffectual, this restaurant has great food and we had great service.
I wish I could remember the name of our waiter. He was helpful in explaining in a matter of fact way how the menu was constructed and made suggestions that proved very sound. The menu at Lily’s changes seasonally depending on what is readily available through local markets.
I was dining with my parents and to quote my dad «I can’t remember the last time I actually dined instead of just ate and left.» Your meal will be leisurely with a little space between courses so you can actually have a conversation and digest a little as you move through your meal.
We each got an appetizer to start.
Salmon Crespelle — a marscapone and smoked salmon crêpe concoction. very good but not as good as what each of my parents chose.
Wild Game Sampler — tasty. So tasty Dad was very reluctant to share any of it.
Spring Roll in Orange Sauce — WOW. If they found a way to bottle that sauce, they could sell it at Whole Foods across the country. Dang. So good.
Soup:
I had the baked tomato soup. Good stuff.
Dad had Thai Spicy Mushroom Soup. You could taste the earthiness of the mushroom and the heat of the soup crept up slowly on you.
Mother had chicken corn chowder. If they ever have that again when I am in Lily’s, I would chose that as the best out of the three soups.
Salad:
Pomegranate vinagrette is the house salad dressing. I went a little out of my comfort zone to try it and I am glad that I did.
Entrée:
Dad had seafood risotto and was very pleased. I tried it and it was excellent but my food was better.
The Jackson Square crab stuffed flounder was exquisite. That’s the best remoulade sauce I have had other than at Stingaree’s Restaurant on the gulf coast in Crystal Beach, TX. It was THAT good.
Mom’s raspberry chicken was excellent but that remoulade sauce on my plate was the stuff that dreams are made of.
Dessert:
All of them that we tried were fantastic.
My banana foster inspired dessert was a wondeful thing.
Dad’s banana bread pudding was wonderful.
Mom’s chocolate mousse was wonderful.
Three weeks has passed since I ate this meal and I can remember the details of each plate clearly. Lily’s is a treasure. If this restaurant was in Dallas, you would have a hard time getting a table and the prices would probably double. If you live nearby or you’re visiting Ephrata, I highly recommend Lily’s. If you go on a Friday or Saturday, you should make a reservation.